Face the fear

If you don’t run (or had just started) and someone said to you that you had two choices on a wednesday afternoon/evening –

A 3 mile run or a 10 mile run

You’d do the sensible thing, right? And go for the 3 miler.

But if you’d ever raced (for raced read finishing in the top 25% with your lungs hanging out) a 5k road race you’d know that the correct answer is the 10 mile run.

And that’s what I did. I chickened out and didn’t do all the things they tell you to do – like to see where my fitness was at, to check my race condition, to get in a bit of race practice.

To atone for my sins I set myself up at the 2 mile mark (the race was just around the corner from the house) and photographed the whole field as they passed. I then posted these shots on an on-line album and had the link posted to the local running website.

This was the running equvalent of buying indulgences.

I felt guilty until I saw the people I normally run with (y’know, same pace in most races) and I recognised the look on their faces that said:

‘fuck, I’ve gone out too fast, another mile to go, I feel like crying/stopping, I can’t hold on’

My clapping and words of encouragement -‘good work lads, only a mile to go’ sounded hollow, even to me!

Cathal O'Connell

No. 658 there is Cathal O’Connell – placed 1st in the M45 in the Rotterdam Marathon 2010. At least we can both say we’ve run Rotterdam now (slightly different placings, mind you)

Great to see that the elites only run on their toes and don’t need heels on their shoes 😉

Dan Kennedy

No. 660 is Dan Kennedy. In most of the marathons and races like this that I run the oly thing separating us is the 18 year age difference. I have crossed the finish line of at least 2 marathons within view of Dan.

Keep going

I don’t know who these 3 runners were but they were bringing up the rear of the field. I think that the achievment for these runners is much greater than for the top 100 finishers. The bravery to get up, go out, enter a race and run the whole thing is a big deal (to me anyway).